US Patent Issued to NIKE on July 21 for "Autolacing footwear motor having force-directing supports" (Oregon Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,685,369, issued on July 21, was assigned to NIKE Inc. (Beaverton, Ore.).

"Autolacing footwear motor having force-directing supports" was invented by Brendan Donohoe (Beaverton, Ore.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An article of footwear, motorized lacing system, and method includes a motor, a transmission, operatively coupled to the motor, a power source, operatively coupled to the motor, a lace spool, operatively coupled to the motor via the transmission, configured to spool and unspool the lace based on operation of the motor, a printed circuit board, and a housing. The housing contains the motor, the transmission, the power source, the...